08 - MOTORSPORT ROUND-UP - AUTOMOTIVE

World Endurance and Le Mans 14 hours – so close to a 16th straight win at Le Mans

The World Endurance Championship, WEC, for sportscar protoypes and GTE-cars is arguably having one of its greatest periods in the history of sportscar racing. Mostly known for the classic Le Mans 24 hours, the WEC is gaining in strength and Le Mans is just one of eight races in the championship, the rest being six hour long races...

Toyota won the championship last year but after three races this year it is the Audi triple of Andre Lotterer, Benoit Tréuleyer and Marcel Fässler who heads the championship.

At Le Mans Öhlins hopes were of course on Audi and Toyota to claim a 16th straight win for an Öhlins equipped car. The race was a thrilling battle between Audi and Porsche, with Toyota not quite having the pace to muster a challenge for the win. In the end it was Porsche who took the win but a strong second place for Lotterer, Tréluyer and Fässler was still a great result. Trust Audi and Toyota to come back strong and hungry for revenge in less than 12 months. Meanwhile the next race up in the WEC is the 6 hours of Nürburgring.

Speaking of endurance 24 hour success…

There were great results at the Nürburgring 24 hour at the mythical Nordschleife for Öhlins equipped cars. Audi brought out their new GT3-car Audi R8 LMS, equipped with Öhlins TTX, for the event in the hands of several teams. The 24 hour race at Nürburgring was as always an intense affair and once again this was a sprint race over 24 hours.

In the end it was the Audi Sport Team WRT that emerged as winners with Christopher Mies, Edward Sandström, Nico Müller and Laurens Vanthoor driving the new Audi R8. They were chased over the line by Marc VDS and their BMW Z4 GT3 driven by Maxime Martin, Lucas Luhr, Markus Palttala and Richard Westbrook, making it a 1-2 on the podium for Öhlins equipped cars. Another 5 Öhlins cars from BMW, Bentley, Audi and Nissan finished in the top 10 at this legendary race.

While at Nürburgring – WTCC debut

For the first time in the history of the World Touring Car Championship, the series visited Nürburgring to race two races at Nordschleife before the 24-hour event. Citroën has dominated WTCC so far and Nürburgring was no exception. Reigning champion and championship leader José María López won the first race with Yvan Muller, second in the championship, winning the second race.

Continuing with touring car racing, the JAS Honda Civic run by WestCoast Racing is winning races and fighting for the title in the TCR International Series.

Gianni Morbidelli is currently third in the championship that is running in its inaugural season, ahead of several national championships adopting these regulations in 2016 and beyond.

Success on the dirt also...

In the FIA European Rally Championship Peugeot Rally Academy drivers Craig Breen and co-driver Scott Martin have won three rallies in a row in their Peugeot 208 T16.

And in FIA World Rallycross Davy Jeanney took Peugeot Hansen Motorsport first win of the season when the championship went to Germany in June.